tumbleweed 11-29

Tumbleweed SmithMidland Reporter-Telegram

Published 9:00 pm, Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Tumbleweed Smith

One of the benefits of a college education is the chance that you may take classes from a genius at his or her peak. That was my situation at Baylor when I enrolled in Paul Baker's Drama 106 course. It was held in a fun place. The lobby of Baylor Theater was made of glass, steel and concrete. It had bright colors. You felt some kind of energy and excitement when you entered the building. The class was held in the theater, an unusual room that had swivel chairs in the middle of it. Stages were in front, behind and on either side. The chairs were in a sunken part of the theater so the stages were at eye level.

Probably no one had more fun than I did during my freshman year. I was certainly not a good student. I started out as a lackluster business major, taking courses that had no interest for me. One night in the dorm during my sophomore year, a friend and I were going over our schedules for the spring quarter and he suggested I take Drama 106. He had taken it the quarter before and said it opened up all kinds of creative thinking. That sounded good to me, since I had never had an original thought in my life. I dropped the history course I had signed up for and went to the theater.

There was something about the way Mr. Baker said the word America. I had never heard it pronounced with such reverence and respect. Just hearing him say that word made me more aware, perhaps for the first time, of what a special and great country we have. He talked about the arts and how art thrives in a civilized society. His words resonated with me and I listened closely to what he had to say. I ended up studying with him for three years, taking courses in playwriting, scene design, acting and directing. Those years changed my life. I did things I had never thought of doing. I drew a picture of an old icehouse. I wrote a song and a poem. I created characters and put them in scenes from my imagination. I was able to look at an object and write down the human characteristics of it. I read about thinking, painting, sculpture and architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright, perhaps the most famous architect in the world, came to the Baylor Theater often because he was designing the Dallas Theater Center, which Mr. Baker opened as an outlet for graduate students.

During my years at Baylor in the mid-1950s, Paul Baker and the Baylor Theater rated cover articles in Life, Time, Newsweek, Saturday Review and other publications. Dave Garroway, the first host of The Today Show, had a program on Sundays called Wide Wide World. When he did a segment on Texas, the Baylor Theater took up 11 minutes of the program.

Actor Burgess Meredith came down to act the part of Hamlet, which was directed by Charles Laughton. The theater attracted people from Broadway and Hollywood, who came to the theater just to get their batteries charged.

I kept in touch with Mr. Baker. We visited several times in succeeding years. I went to his house and he came to mine. We'd meet at various theater gatherings around the state. He lived a full life until his death in October at the age of 98. I am glad I knew him.